Page 22 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity (Ton’s Beasts #2)

Leo watched as Margaret leapt into the carriage where the servants awaited their return. He hesitated for a moment, wanting to stay and shield her, but the most protection he could offer was within the walls of his estate.

He turned back to the park to ask Joan to collect Annie and Kitty. Aaron and Theresa were just coming back from their stroll around the clearing. He gestured to Aaron that he would be waiting in the carriage.

Theresa looked worried when she did not see Margaret, and the couple began to walk faster toward Leo. It took only moments before their party was back in the carriage, but it felt like a lifetime to Leo.

The ride to Devishire Mansion was silent and tense. Theresa sat beside Margaret and held her hand, stroking her arm the entire time. She glared at Leo, as if he were the cause of Margaret’s tear-streaked cheeks. But if Theresa did not know the story, he would not be the one to tell it.

Even Annie and Kitty behaved themselves on the way home.

Kitty watched Margaret with wide eyes. She had never seen Margaret even the least bit upset—not when they were hiding, not when she was chastising them.

She patted Margaret’s knee, which prompted Margaret to look up for the first time. Though her face was red and blotchy, she managed to smile at the girl, reassuring her that all was well.

“Why is Margaret upset?” Annie asked Leo. It was perhaps the first time she had ever addressed him directly.

“She ran into someone she used to know,” he said, hoping that it was enough information to quell any more questions.

“But why would that upset her?” Annie pressed.

Leo bit his tongue, remembering that Margaret had said he should spend more time talking to the girls.

She was right. All he ever did was scold them, and he was tempted to do so now.

“It was not someone she was particularly fond of,” he explained.

Annie nodded as if she understood this. She, too, reached out and patted Margaret on the arm before settling in beside her sister. Annie and Kitty clasped hands and did not speak again until they were back at the mansion.

They tumbled out of the carriage and raced into the house, Joan trailing behind them. Aaron helped Theresa and Margaret down from the carriage as Leo looked on.

“Dear husband, I believe I will go with my friend to her room,” Theresa said as they left the stables. She was supporting Margaret as the two of them walked through the garden.

Aaron nodded. “We will be in the study, should you need us.”

Leo watched helplessly as Margaret and Theresa left. He and Aaron went right to the study. He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated by the constraints placed upon him by propriety.

He would give anything to follow her to her rooms and take her mind off her grandfather, even for a little while. He envied Theresa for her ability to comfort Margaret in the way he wished he could.

Aaron shut the door and poured them each a glass of whiskey. He sat at the table as Leo paced back and forth, his mind whirring as he considered his options.

“Now that we are alone, will you tell me what is really going on between you and Margaret?” Aaron asked, taking a slow sip of his drink.

“I brought Margaret here under my protection,” Leo said quietly. “And it seems that she did not trust me to tell me the full story.”

“And this has to do with the Earl of Riley and the auction for his granddaughter’s hand,” Aaron said, realization dawning in his eyes. “You were protecting her from him.”

“I knew she was running from something. From someone. She stumbled into my book club at Olympus without an invitation because she had been running from someone. From him.”

“You met Margaret at your book club?”

“She was not there for long, so do not fear for her virtue,” Leo said. “I whisked her away, but I could not help feeling compelled to help her, to protect her. Part of me wants to break her, yes. But all of me wants to save her.”

“Spoken like a true gentleman,” Aaron laughed. “You find a nun among your degenerate friends and bring her to your estate, roping your friends into protecting her as well.”

“It is no laughing matter,” Leo said sternly. “The Earl of Riley is a dangerous man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. And right now, he wants Margaret.”

“Then you cannot let him have her. Theresa and I will do our best to ensure that she is protected here. Two dukes should be able to fend off the advances of an earl.”

Leo swirled the whiskey in his glass and took a long sip.

Aaron seemed to think that this was going to be easy, but Leo had learned a few things about the little nun in his care. He knew that she was bound and determined to ruin her life.

Why else was she so determined to take her vows?

It was clear that she wanted to experience the world. That much was obvious from her desire to join his book club. From the way she moaned his name when he pleasured her. She knew that she did not want the life that had been set before her.

All he had to do now was convince her that it was not the right thing for her.

“You speak the truth,” Leo finally said, draining his glass. “I have to show Margaret what she would be giving up if she gave in to the old Earl’s demands. You will have to excuse me. It seems there is something I must do now.”

He rose from the table and set his glass next to the decanter. If Aaron knew what he had planned, he did not let on or attempt to stop him. He merely nodded and took another sip of his whiskey as Leo turned on his heel and walked out of the study.

He made a sharp turn toward the rooms on the opposite side of the mansion. Annie and Kitty were playing in their chambers, giggling with one another, but he could not stop to see what mischief they were up to. He kept going until he reached the heavy door of Margaret’s room.

Without knocking, he pushed it open.

Margaret was standing in the middle of the room, her trunk open and various items tossed inside of it haphazardly. Theresa sat on the chair in the corner, a somber expression on her face. Her eyes were sad, and her mouth was set in a tight line.

Margaret did not even look up when Leo barged into the room. Instead, she continued to grab dresses from the wardrobe and packed them in the trunk.

I can’t be too late to stop this.

Leo knew that Margaret was headstrong, but he did not think she desired her own destruction. He did not think, even for a moment, that she wanted to give in to the Earl’s demands.

She would rather give up her life to the Lord than to marry the man her grandfather would choose for her. He knew that much, and he was counting on the fact that she would choose her own way, given the chance to do so.

“Theresa, would you please excuse us for a moment?”

Theresa stood up, but she did not move toward the door. Leaving him alone with Margaret would be improper. But this moment called for all of them to discard decorum.

If she thought he would try to corrupt Margaret, she was right. But when Margaret nodded to her, she swept out of the room in search of her husband.

Then, Margaret straightened and turned to face him, pausing her packing.

“Where do you think you are going?” Leo demanded when she did not speak.

He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at her. He did not need to ask the question to know the answer.

“To my grandfather,” Margaret said.

He knew from her red-rimmed eyes that she felt this was inevitable. She had been crying because of what her grandfather had done, and he felt compelled to save her from him.

“You forget yourself,” he told her. She looked up at him, startled. “We have a deal, remember? You are still mine.”

Margaret shook her head. A lone tear slipped from the corner of her eye and trailed down her cheek. She reached up quickly to wipe it away as if she did not want Leo to see how much this decision pained her.

“No,” she said firmly. “I was never yours to claim. And now, I never will be.”

She turned back to the wardrobe and started to flip through the remaining dresses hanging on the rack. Unable to take another moment of this unimaginable refutation of his claim on her, he crossed the room in two large strides and grabbed her arm, turning her around to face him.

“You mean to say that you were not mine when you moaned my name?” His eyes glinted in the light streaming through the window, his grip tightening on her arm as he thought about the way she writhed beneath his touch. “You were not mine when you came on my hand?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, and her skin flushed pink, though he was certain that it was not from embarrassment. The fire he had stoked was anger, not shame. She yanked her arm out of his grasp and took a step back from him.

“That meant nothing, Leo,” she snapped. Then, her expression softened just a bit. “They were good moments, and I will always cherish them. But those moments cannot protect me from my fate.”

“Your fate?” Leo echoed, incredulous. “Three hours ago, you were prepared to pledge your life to the Lord and thought that was your fate. How can you be sure now that you must go to your grandfather?”

“This is how it was supposed to happen,” she said. “All I know is that the Lord works in mysterious ways. If there is one thing I learned, it is that. My time is up. It is time I embrace the situation I’ve found myself in.”

This type of talk made Leo’s blood simmer because he knew that she did not truly believe it. Instead of arguing with her, he reached out and grabbed her wrist. Pulling her along, he marched out of her chambers and into the hall.

“Where are you taking me?”

“To show you who really controls your fate.”